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Revision as of 20:05, 8 March 2005 by Duncharris (talk | contribs) (→Biography)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr (born 1950) is an American millionaire philanthropist for the causes of Christian fundamentalism.
Biography
Ahmanson is the son of the American financier Howard Ahmanson, Sr (1906 — 1968) and his wife. His parents divorced when he was 10, and his mother died shortly afterwards. Despite the trappings of wealth, he was a lonely child "I resented my family background, could never be a role model, whether by habits or his lifestyle, it was never anything I wanted." Howard Ahmanson, Sr died when his son was 18, and Ahmanson Jr inherited a vast fortune.
He went away to Kansas and then went to Occidental College, where he obtained a degree in economics. He then toured Europe, but returned because of arthritis. He earned a master's degree in linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington.
He then became a Calvinist. He then became interested in Christian Reconstructionism.
He married his wife Roberta Green Ahmanson in 1986. He is somewhat of a recluse and suffers from Tourette's syndrome, so his wife usually maeks anouncements for him.
Philanthrophy
Ahmanson founded the Fieldstead Institute. He is a major funder of the Discovery Institute, whose Center for Science and Culture opposes the theory of evolution. He funded the magazine Chalcedon Report, which carried an article calling for homosexuals to be stoned. He funds the Claremont Institute, a think-tank which promoted a video in which Charlton Heston praises "the God-fearing Caucasian middle class". Although donating to the United States Republican Party, some of his donations have been returned because of his views.